ABSTRACT
When seer Teiresias says, “You yourself are the pollution of this country … you are the murderer whom you seek,” Oedipus replies: “Am I to bear this from him?—Damnation/Take you! Out of this place! Out of my sight!”
Environment seers Rachel Carson, Bill McKibben, Al Gore, and E.O. Wilson have spoken as plainly as Teiresias. At first our denial of Mother Nature’s was also plain disbelief. Some “Science-Doubters” then morphed into “Shirkers”—people who believe the scientific evidence for the pollution of the environment, climate change, and the mass extinction of species but deny human responsibility for them. Others have become “Fatalists” who sigh “Whatever will be, will be.” We also have our “Mr. Micawbers” who believe our seers and complacently wait for the right kind of technology to turn up, our “Procrastinators” who tell us there is still plenty of time, and our “Displacement Deniers” who expect the nations, cities, corporations and other artificial constructs our species has created to act in our stead.
